If gargantuan helmet esque riffs are your deal, then you won’t have failed to notice, the holy ball
buster that was Whores. sophomore release,
Clean. Fitton described the record best
saying it is so good; it should be
illegal for it to exist. The amount
of groove base riffs per capita was truly mouth watering, so much so in fact
that after hearing a mere 2 tracks, I immediately headed to their bandcamp site
and purchased both their records. Result!!
Therefore,
I am beyond stoked Christian from Whores. agreed to talk to us here for the
second installment of The Double A Doom Interview. Following the
release of Clean. these riff dealers are not resting on their laurels and
during our conversation, they seem agitated to get back into the studio to
record a follow up. So with talk of new music and whole lot more, It is
gives me great pleasure to welcome, one Whore to SludgelordHQ, Christian
Lembach. They ain’t no pimps!!
(DAD) Who are you, state your name (s) and purpose?
My name is Christian, and I’m here to fuck shit up.
(DAD)
Summarise your musical journey (s) this point?
I love Journey. Seriously. Steve Perry can sing his ass off.
(DAD)
What can fans look forward to from you in 2014? How is your schedule shaping up?
We have a bunch of stuff coming up. We have a split single coming
out that we did with the band Rabbits (Portland), we’re recording an indieATL
session, we’re recording a song for the Amphetamine Reptile’s revived Dope,
Guns and Fucking in the Streets series, we’re playing the Metal Sucks showcase
at SXSW, and we have a U.S. tour directly following (dates with Deafheaven, Lo
Pan, Gay Witch Abortion, Fight Amp, Rye Coalition and Roomrunner). And that’s just
March.
(DAD) What springs to mind
when you think about the completion of your new/current record?
I’m ready to
get cracking on the next one, honestly. I love everything we’ve done so far,
but I feel like we’re just getting going.
(DAD) Who handles song writing
duties?
I usually bring
in riffs or basic structures and we flesh out arrangements together. Then we
record the rough arrangement and I bring the recording home to write words and
tweak the arrangement.
(DAD) How long was the
gestation of your new/current opus from conception to delivery?
We’ve played a
few of the songs on Clean in our set for a little while, and some of the songs
were brand new, so it’s hard to say. The words for “Last Looks” were written in
the studio, but Cougars, Not Kittens is actually one of our oldest songs. We
also recorded more songs than we released. We get shit sometimes for not
putting out longer records, but we’d rather release something that we are super
proud of than something we’re 80% proud of, you know?
(DAD) Reflecting on your
new/current record, was your artwork designed with a particular physical format
in mind? Who designed it? What are your thoughts the finished physical product?
What format is/will be available?
I usually have
an idea in mind as far as the name of the record and the artwork should reflect
that. We treated Clean as a companion piece to our first record, Ruiner, so I
had the concept of the matches and the name together. Our friend Chad Hess took
the picture and our friend Patrick Copeland did the layout. I absolutely love
the grey splatter vinyl, and the purple version is beautiful as well. Sadly,
those are both long sold out. We are self-releasing a CD with both Ruiner and
Clean on it for our upcoming tour, and Brutal Panda is doing a second pressing
of Clean on vinyl as we speak.
(DAD)
The best and worst things about being
in a band?
The best thing is everything. I couldn’t
do anything else.
The worst part is scraping by to make ends
meet financially.
(DAD) Influences and heroes,
what are turn offs and turn on’s?
Our influences
are pretty obvious, I think. What a lot of people probably don’t know is that
we all really like pop music like The Pixies and I personally love 80s stuff
like Bauhaus and The Birthday Party. A sort of morose aesthetic really
resonates with me for some reason. Dax Riggs and Mark Lanegan are two of my
favourite singers.
(DAD)
Any record from the past or present that springs to mind?
I like so much stuff; it’s hard to say just one record. Let’s say
Rated R.
(DAD) The last album that kicked your arse?
Easy. Retox’s YPLL.
(DAD)
What was your first instrument or
musical experience and what do you use today?
I had a friend growing up who had an
electric guitar and amp, and I used to go over his house to make noise with it
while all of our other friends were outside playing or whatever. I was so drawn
to it.
I could talk about gear for hours. For the
sake of brevity, I play single-coil guitars, fuzz pedals and loud, clean amps.
(DAD) One item, gear or otherwise that characterises
your band and one item from your set up you cannot live without?
Another easy one: the green Russian Big
Muff.
(DAD)
Pro-tools versus old school?
Both work. I’m no purist.
(DAD) Blogs and social media vs. getting on the road and touring?
I shepherd our
online stuff pretty closely, and I think it has definitely helped our band, but
there is no substitute for melting faces. I love knowing that people like our
band based on recordings alone, because that means we’re going to absolutely
fuck them up when they see us play.
(DAD) What are your survival
tips for the road, any rider requests?
I have to drink
a gallon of water a day, sleep constantly and not eat any dairy whatsoever.
We’re nowhere near having any sort of rider yet, though. Two words: Waffle
House.
(DAD) Have you ever been
starstruck and what have been your band highlight (s) thus far
I haven’t really met any
celebrities or whatever through the band, but that stuff is kind of silly to me
anyway. As far as highlights, Playing with Retox and meeting JP was a pretty
big deal for me.
(DAD) Vinyl Junkie or Ipod
flunky? Discuss
As a band, you
have to do both, but I want both as a listener as well. I listen to a ton of
vinyl at home, but I have to have access to music everywhere, so an iPod is a
must. I recently lost an iPod with over 5,000 songs on it. I was so bummed. I’m
populating a new one now. On the flipside, I just got two records in the mail
today.
(DAD)
Indiegogo or creative no no?
Never. That shit is disgusting to me.
(DAD)
Finally, do you have any final comments/word
of wisdom you’d like to bestow upon us?
Hahahaha. Certainly not.
Thank
you on behalf of the Sludgelord.
Thanks buddy. I hope we can get over to the UK
Words and interview by : Aaron Pickford
